New Delhi, Apr 7 (PTI) Domestic passenger traffic in India was 30.8 per cent less in February 2021 as compared to the corresponding period in 2019, said global airlines body IATA on Wednesday.

The global passenger traffic was down 74.7 per cent in February as compared to the same month in 2019, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) said.

Passenger traffic is measured in revenue passenger kilometres (RPKs), which is calculated by multiplying the number of seats that were filled with passengers to the distance travelled by the flight.

Domestic traffic was resilient in India and Brazil, falling by respective 30.8 per cent and 34.9 per cent respectively compared to February 2019, the IATA said in a statement.

"In India, new cases were low in February, and vaccinations have started," it said. "But cases increased again in March, and the large economic impact from the crisis will delay a return to the strong growth rates of the recent past."

The IATA said it did not make the comparisons with statistics of February 2020 and chose to compare 2021 figures with 2019 figures because of the coronavirus pandemic, which started showing its effect from early last year.

The IATA has around 290 airlines as its members, comprising around 82 per cent of the global traffic. PTI

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